Overactive bladder (OAB) is a highly prevalent urological disorder affecting both men and women. OAB is treatable, but many afflicted patients remain undiagnosed or untreated, due, in large part, to the invasive existing diagnostic approaches. Furthermore, OAB can be presented in patients with or without bladder outlet obstruction (such as benign prostatic hypertrophy) or bladder neck dysfunction. Very often, making the correct diagnosis in these patients can be very difficult.
OAB continues to present diagnostic challenges, and confirmation of disease often requires invasive procedures. For example, OAB is generally diagnosed by history and/or confirmed by invasive technology called urodynamic testing or urodynamics. Essentially any procedure designed to provide information about a bladder problem can be called a urodynamic test. The type of test utilized depends on the problem to be diagnosed.
Most urodynamic testing focuses on the bladder's ability to empty steadily and completely. It can also show whether the bladder is having abnormal contractions that cause leakage. Urodynamic tests can range from simple observation to precise measurement using sophisticated instruments. Thus, urodynamic testing can provide useful information regarding bladder function. Unfortunately, however, urodynamic testing is also a highly invasive procedure which typically involves inserting a catheter into the bladder, giving the patient known amounts of fluid, and checking bladder capacity, involuntary voiding, and muscular control as objective findings.
Similarly, urinary incontinence is a urological disorder that can include, for example, stress-type incontinence (that is, leakage of urine with coughing, sneezing, etc.), urge-type incontinence (that is, leakage of urine associated with a strong sensation to void), mixed-type incontinence (that is, a combination of stress-type and urge-type incontinence) and overflow incontinence (that is, when patients cannot urinate it will overflow and lead to incontinence).
Patients with urgency or urge-type incontinence represent a group of overactive bladder sufferers whose diagnosis remains difficult to establish. Urodynamic testing demonstrating involuntary bladder contraction provides objective confirmation but represents an invasive approach and is therefore undesirable.
Accordingly, there exists a need for techniques to diagnose and monitor response to treatment of urological disease that obviate the need for existing invasive procedures.